Deep Fried Trouble (Eugeena Patterson Mysteries) (2 page)

It was a good thing I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. It would’ve ended up on Mary’s patio floor, which I’m sure the crime scene investigators wouldn’t have appreciated. I scooped up poor Porgy as fast as I could, and took off running like a mad woman back down the hill.  I know I scared poor Amos. He’d looked up and almost collided with the boxwoods shrubbery bordering my property. Amos cut off the lawn mower and rushed toward me.

I grabbed his arm. “It’s Mary. I think she’s dead.”

Amos whipped out his cell phone and punched in some numbers.

I plunked the dog and myself down on my front porch steps. For the next thirty minutes, official looking vehicles ascended the hill. It wasn’t long before my neighbors ventured out of their homes, probably disturbed by all the sirens.

I, on the other hand, was disturbed for another reason. I would never have the chance to make up for lost time with Mary. I felt so many times the Lord drawing me to be the bigger person4, after all, I did make the biggest fuss. Now all was lost.

Porgy sat by my side, panting his little heart out. His black eyes looked so sad; I could barely stand to look at him. I placed my hands over my eyes to block out my surroundings, wishing I could curl up in a ball.

All of a sudden Porgy started barking. I moved my hands from my face to find a person staring at me from across the street.

Wayne Goodman.

I watched that boy grow up. Really, I couldn’t call him a boy, more like a man who never quite grew up. Trouble followed Wayne like a cat set on a mouse’s trail. In and out of prison, so I heard, I knew he was in his late thirties, around the age of my youngest son. Other than occupying his deceased mother’s home, he didn’t seem to be up to much of anything with his life.

A few months before, we had a string of burglaries. In my opinion, the crimes really started when Wayne showed back up. I could be a little on the judgmental side, but that boy seemed a bit too old to be wearing his pants slung down round his hips. What happened to wearing belts? And someone please give me some clippers so I can have at that head of hair. Half braided, half afro.
Make up your mind, mister
.

“Eugeena. Eugeena.”

I took my eyes off Wayne to catch Louise Hopkins shuffling down the sidewalk from her house, which was on the other side of mine. If I had to say seventy-year old Louise was my oldest friend in the world. Her once blond hair had turned completely white. She was the spunkiest white woman I’d ever met.

We didn’t too much like each other at first. Funny, how God worked through an armor of fears and stereotypes to form a friendship.

I stood. “Louise, you better slow down. We don’t need you breaking your hip.”

“Oh please. Don’t nothing hold me back. What about you? I heard you found Mary.”

How did she hear so fast? I wasn’t trying to figure it out either. Louise had probably lived in Sugar Creek the longest, back during a time when the neighborhood wasn’t quite as diverse. One time she even told me her great great-granddaddy owned a plantation right here in Charleston. That turned out to be one interesting conversation.

Anyhow, there was nothing Louise didn’t know. She’d outlived two husbands and two children. The one child she had left, William, was traipsing off somewhere in the Louisiana bayou or was it the Florida Everglades. I couldn’t keep up with Louise’s stories of her son’s adventures. I rarely saw the man and often wondered if ole Louise wasn’t telling some fibs every now and then.

“Well, what happened?” Louise leaned on my porch railing trying to catch her breath.

Porgy yipped and yapped.

“Shush, little dog. It’ll be okay.”

“You got Mary’s dog there. That little mutt must really like you. I’m a cat person myself. Always will be.”

Porgy growled. Smart little thing. He even knew when someone insulted him.

I picked up the dog and he nestled under my arm. “I had to do something. He would’ve been in the way of...”

“The cops. Eugeena, there were so many cars heading towards Mary’s house. You know I had a bad feeling. We talked about this the other night, remember?”

“Yeah.” I wish Louise hadn’t reminded me. Louise started the neighborhood watch program years ago and was still in shock she had asked me to head it up. I didn’t know anything about running a watch.  Sticking my nose out the window from time to time to make note of suspicious characters seemed to be the only thing I knew to do.

By now, several neighbors were swarming in from every direction like ants at a church picnic, coming to invade my front yard. As the official president of the Sugar Creek Neighborhood Watch, people needed me to keep them informed.  I hope no one thought I was going to invite them in for coffee and donuts.  I was in no mood to be hospitable.

I discovered my former friend’s dead body and I might not ever be the same.
Sweet Jesus, help me.

I nodded at Wayne as he approached. Then, I stood and hugged Tamara Robertson, one of the new neighbors. She was such a petite little thing.  Her deep chocolate skin had not a single blemish. It really was hard to tell if she was 18 or 30.  As far as I knew, she was a newlywed because she mentioned her husband, Melvin, all the time.

“Miss Eugeena, are you okay?” Tamara’s brown eyes were wide, staring at Porgy.

Porgy was barking and running in circles like he was having a doggy breakdown.

I shook my head and turned towards Tamara. “Honey, I’m fine.” I stepped away from Tamara and looked at my neighbors. “You know all of you didn’t have to come over to check on me.”

Towering over Tamara, Carmen Alpine stepped forward with her hands on her hips. “Miss Eugeena, you have to tell us what happened!”

Built like an Amazon woman, Carmen looked like she could take a man down. I forgot what she did for a living, but she certainly took care of her body. Voluptuous, but definitely fit like that singing gal,
Beyoncé
, and with all the attitude of a Cleopatra Jones, she was not a sister to pick a fight with that’s for sure. Her eyebrow shot up as she continued. “When we met at your house last week, we were talking about burglaries, now we got a murder. I thought this was supposed to be a decent neighborhood.”

Folks started up with the protests.

“Now hold on, people.” I looked around at all the faces in my yard, conscious again of the hot temperature. Sweat poured down every crevice in my body. Not a good feeling.  Understandably people were scared. But I was not the one to be interrogated. If anything I needed to know what these people knew. 

Anybody in this neighborhood could have easily walked to Mary’s house and killed her. I had no idea why since the woman barely socialized with people. Still from what I knew from watching
Perry Mason
and
Murder She Wrote
, Mary might have known her killer. Somebody close by could have watched her activities, which were probably pretty routine since she didn’t leave the house often. “How did all of you hear this information? Who told you somebody died?”

Everyone was quiet and looked around at each other.

Wayne’s deep voice broke the awkward silence. “I don’t know about anyone else, but the way you came tearing down the hill a while ago, I knew something really bad happened.”

Was I screaming or something?
I know pure terror had engulfed my soul.

Louise sat down on my step. “All those sirens gave me a clue. Looked like a scene from a cop show. Plus some detective has been around asking questions.”

Carmen interrupted, “Yeah. Totally took me by surprise this morning. How did she die? Was it a gun? I always tell people you need something to defend yourself with. I got....”

“Carmen, that’s enough. Y’all, I don’t know any more than what you know. I saw a disturbing scene this morning and quite frankly I’m too shook up to really talk now.”

Tears sprang to my eyes. Oh Lord, why did you take Mary? My sorrow swooped on me like a hawk going after its prey. I sat back down on my step, the hard brick work pressed into my thighs.

Porgy reminded me of his presence by licking my arms.
Ew!
Sweat and doggy spit. Okay, we were going to have to set some ground rules with that canine and I needed some AC. The humidity had encased my heavy frame like a warm blanket. But first I needed to run my neighbors out my yard. “Y’all, it’s getting hot out here. We’ll talk later.”

There were a few grumbles, mainly from Louise. She hadn’t gotten her scoop, but I knew she didn’t want to stay out in the sun despite her need to be in the know. Carmen and Tamara talked as they walked out the gate. Wayne slinked off, following behind the two women.

The little Corgi started barking again like he owned my porch. I looked towards the sidewalk to see what had his attention this time. A woman dressed in khaki pants and a white shirt stood at the edge of my property talking to Amos. He must have sensed me staring because he glanced over. Our eyes met. 

The woman turned, taking note of where I sat and walked away from Amos.

I stood. Up close, I could see her red hair was pinned at the top of her head, but some sprigs had escaped and were stuck to her freckled face.

“Ma’am, how are you doing? I understand you found the body?”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell me a little about what you found?” The woman flipped a page in her pad and poised her pen. “Were you going to visit the deceased this morning?”

The deceased had a name. “Yes. I mean no. I was on my morning walk and noticed Porgy here.” I pointed to the little dog who sat looking up at the woman with an inquisitive face.  I had some questions of my own. “By the way, who are you?”

The woman looked sheepish. “I’m sorry.” She reached in her pocket and pulled out a badge. “I’m Detective Sarah Wilkes. Now you said you were walking and the dog was out. Why was this unusual?”

“If you knew Mary, you’d know she’d never let this dog out of her sight.”

“He seems pretty friendly with you. Did you go over there a lot?”

“Well, no. I did when she first got him. He’s about five years old. I guess he remembers me.”

“So, you hadn’t visited with Mary in five years?”

Here we go. “We didn’t visit with each other as often. Mary and I sort of grew apart.” That’s all she needed to know.

“I see. So, you thought it was strange that the dog was out. What did you do next?”

“I called Mary’s name several times. When she didn’t answer, I walked all the way around to the back of the house. I thought maybe she was engrossed with the flowers and didn’t notice Porgy was missing from her side.”

“What did you see when you arrived?”

“I peeked in through the glass doors. I saw the glass of water on the counter. I guess that might not mean nothing, but Mary didn’t like things lying around.”

“She could have sat it there to check on something at the front part of the house.”

“But she wouldn’t have locked her dog out of the house. That also doesn’t explain...”

I gulped. The image of Mary’s face made me shudder.

“Are you alright, Mrs. Patterson? Do you have something else to share?”

“Yes. No. I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” The young woman cocked her eyebrow, and studied my face before speaking again. “Anyone we can contact for you?”

“I’m fine. Really.”

“Can you think of anyone who might want to harm the deceased?”

There she goes again. The woman’s name was Mary
. “No. Mary really was more of a recluse since she’d lost her family years ago. She didn’t bother anyone and nobody bothered her.”

“So, she didn’t have any tiffs with anyone. Sometimes people who live alone like that get annoyed easily.”

The only disagreement I knew Mary had was with me. In fact, most of the neighborhood knew. Sure, it was past history, but there were some folks who might decide to volunteer the past feud with the detective. I couldn’t let that happen, so, I offered her my two cents. “There have been several burglaries lately. I’m not sure how long poor Porgy was outside, but suppose Mary ran into an intruder?”

“That’s a possibility.” The woman scratched down some notes and then snapped her pad closed. “The investigation is still early in the process. We can’t verify if this was a robbery just yet, but thanks for the tip though.” She reached inside her front pocket and handed me a card. “Just in case you think of something else, don’t hesitate to give me a call.”

“Thank you, Detective. I will.”

Now more than ever I regretted being appointed the neighborhood association president.  At the meeting a few weeks ago, we discussed the protocols to follow if we saw something suspicious. Even Wayne offered some tips. Apparently, that boy picked a few locks at some point in his life. This raised my suspicions about him even more.

Even if he was a thief, I couldn’t quite picture him as a killer. I didn’t want anyone in the neighborhood to fit that description.

How did I get this much responsibility on my shoulders? I’m retired
.

I looked down at Porgy. “We’re going to find out what happened to your mama. In the meantime, you need a place to stay.”

I couldn’t believe what I was doing. Boy, if Ralph was alive he’d thrown a fit. God had a way of working situations out. The least I could do for poor Mary was to take care of her most prized possession. I also needed to find out who took her life.